Lucien
St. James is a famous singer/songwriter already thinking about retirement when
he is betrayed by those closest to him. Heartbroken and disappointed he leaves his
old life in LA behind him and moves to the town of Silver to hide from the
world until he will no longer be fodder for the paparazzi. Accompanied by two
bodyguards, Jax Talbert and Jonathan Lang, Lucien moves into a secluded
mountain retreat to lick his wounds.

Jax and
Jonathan take their job seriously. As a committed couple they enjoy working together
and normally keep the relationship with their clients strictly professional.
Living with Lucien in almost complete seclusion pushes the relationship a little
bit further though and it isn’t long before the three men are good friends;
friends who each have their own fantasies about what it might be like if they
went one step further again.

When
those fantasies threaten to become a reality, Jax and Jonathan quit their job,
afraid of crossing boundaries and raising expectations that might be
unrealistic. Confused by the actions of the two men and his feelings for them
as well as hurt by what he sees as their desertion, Lucien will have to
overcome his own pride as well as Jax and Jonathan’s reservations if the three
of them are going to have the future together they so clearly deserve.

I’m
in two minds about this book. On the one hand there is the story-line, as
described above, which I loved. But on the other is the way this story was
written. And that didn’t work for me. I found myself getting confused as to
whose mind I was in and who they were talking to and/or about.

I
can’t help feeling that maybe the author didn’t trust her own story enough. The
tale of the three men and what it took for them to accept their love for each
other would have been enough. It didn’t need the unexpected and unexplained
violent scene near the end. To me it felt as if that was only there for shock
value, to keep the reader engaged. The thing is that I was engaged – in the
love story – and this scene pulled me out of that, leaving me wondering ‘what the hell?’ and ‘why?’.

I
couldn’t help feeling the book would have benefited from a bit more editing.
On several occasions the repeated use of a word in subsequent sentences took me
out of the story.

I
also feel the author dragged the ending out too far. The perfect moment to end
the book on came, in my opinion, several pages before the final word. Those
last few pages didn’t add anything to the story as they described a future I
had already pictured in my mind. I more or less had to force myself to read the
epilogue and resist the temptation to just skip to the end. And it wouldn’t
have made any difference if I had skipped to the end; I don’t feel I would have
missed anything vital to the story if I had.

But,
like I said, I did enjoy the story itself. I liked the relationship between Jax
and Lang and how well they worked together. I liked Lucien although he did seem
a bit naive for someone who’d been famous for such a long time. And I loved how
the three men slowly got closer to each other despite the reservations each of
them had about that set-up.I enjoyed
watching Lucien getting his confidence back and adored Jax’s turmoil while he
was trying to deal with his feelings and his inability to vocalise them.

I
liked the idea of the town of Silver. The acceptance of unconventional
relationships was not only fun to read about but also something we can only
hope will one day be normal everywhere. And it was very smart to have the whole
town being private property, thus allowing the sheriff powers he wouldn’t have
in any other community.

“Fierce
Hearts”
is the third title in the “Men of Silver” series. I didn’t read
the first two books and was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t a problem.
While it is quite possible that I would have enjoyed the secondary characters
more if I had read those prequels, I didn’t feel as if I was missing vital
information while reading this book.

Overall
this book felt a bit like a missed opportunity; a great story idea that could
have been a wonderful read with just a few smallish changes. As it was I found
it too easy to put this book down and not easy enough to pick it back up again.

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